


The Obsession of Inspector Akabane

by moon_hotel



Category: Adolf ni Tsugu | Adolf ('Tell Adolf')
Genre: Gen, M/M, Osamu Tezuka
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-06-15
Updated: 2011-06-15
Packaged: 2017-10-20 11:01:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 562
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/212077
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/moon_hotel/pseuds/moon_hotel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Akabane begins to measure his days in Toge's face, and soon he knows it better than his own.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Obsession of Inspector Akabane

**Author's Note:**

> A joint effort with Khoroshonov.

  


Akabane peers up at the window of a teacher with suspected Communist ties. Someone tells him she's got a big, tough young man in her room. The inspector muses, grinning, that perhaps the man's her lover.

Akabane feels the _crack_ of the rod on Toge's back and the vibration of the impact up his arm. But the man's made of iron, and he gets back up again, and again, and again. Akabane snarls as he feels frustration, now his constant companion, flare inside his stomach.

Akabane corners Toge against a wall as the shadows grow long. He leans in close, close enough to growl into his ear and smell the sweat on his skin. He will grind this man slowly, inexorably, into the dirt. He feels more excited than he has in a very long time.

Akabane can work on, speak of, _think of_ nothing else except that goddamn reporter. He's supposed to get the package of documents, this nebulous thing Toge may or may not have, the significance of which Akabane isn't party to anyway; but one reason is as good as any other, and it pulls him from moment to moment. He begins to measure his days in Toge's face. Soon he knows it better than his own.

Akabane sees his quarry reduced to a shivering heap in the rain, his head bowed down. For a long while, the inspector says nothing, knowing that the instant he opens his mouth, everything will be rushed, suddenly and irretrievably, towards its conclusion. He grips the handle of his umbrella...and he watches.

Akabane wakes up in the hospital. It's a slow process, because his mind is empty, and for a long time nothing exists to anchor himself to consciousness. It's only when Sohei Toge's face slowly fades into focus that his eyes grow wide. He's vanished from the hospital fifteen minutes later.

Akabane stares into the sun from the little cave on the island. It burns in his eyes, but he sees nothing anyway. He feels the tug of the rope around his waist, he tastes the salt on his tongue, and faintly, from someplace far away, he smells sweat. Someone's shadow creeps up to the cave. He feels excited, somehow, vaguely.

Akabane remembers, eventually. Piece by piece, he reconstructs the office of the thought-police inside his head, until it is pristine and perfect, and more real than the city his feet aimlessly shuffle him through. Kaufmann helps. Kaufmann's a nice guy, for a German, and the inspector feels a swell of pride at finding someone who appreciates his talents.

Akabane doesn't know it, but when Kaufmann mentions Toge, he starts to shake and pant like a dog.

Akabane hears the far, faint _wheewwwww_ of the bomb as it's falling, but he doesn't realize what it is until he's being tossed around like a rag doll as glass digs itself into his chest. He doesn't even know enough to realize he's lost, he's deluded, and he's dying: all he knows is that that bastard's still there, still just a few feet from him, if the inspector can only reach. Even when the white starts to creep in on the edges of his vision, he doesn't care and he isn't worried. He's gone to sleep before and woken up again. It's nothing new.

Akabane dies, and as he dies, he dreams of Toge.

**Author's Note:**

> There are two previous installments in this "trilogy," which started off as a joke and then turned serious: [The Unbearable Lightness of Inspector Akabane](http://queen-stardust.tumblr.com/post/6531173433/the-unbearable-lightness-of-inspector-akabane) (a conversation about Akabane's mundane interactions with the boring world around him) and [The Curiosity of Inspector Akabane](http://queen-stardust.tumblr.com/post/6542972982/the-curiosity-of-inspector-akabane) (about his possible budding homosexuality). I figured the third part stood up well enough by itself, since the tone is totally different anyway.


End file.
